CATALONIA
The Catalan people are proud and cling fiercely to their roots, their language and their culture.
The
cuisine is varied in the extreme, and combining meat and fish, but one
of the examples of their refusal to adhere to any law or principals of
cooking.
Barcelona is the most exciting city in Catalonia,
some say even in Spain and the Boqueria is her heart – whilst it used
to be the market where goat meat was sold.
Today everything can be found there and people trawl the market in search of fresh gurnard or gambas (shrimps),
cheeses from the Pyrenees, fresh mushrooms in autumn and anything else
culinary they could possibly need to cater for their daily meals.
The
olive oil from this region is world renowned, their truffles and
mushrooms plentiful (like the milk cap) and their desserts, like crema
catalana has been incorporated into most dessert menus world wide.
Typical foods are the pan con tamate (tomato
bread), calçotada (green onions from the Valls region that are grilled
over a braai and eaten in a terracotta roof tile with almond and tomato
sauce.
Rape a la marinera (monkfish
cooked in garlic, wine, chillies and breadcrumbs, topped with a couple
of large lightly boiled langoustines), suquet le peix (Catalan fish
stew), fresh eels cooked
with garlic and peppers, garlic shrimps, patacó tarragoní (tuna and
snails), pollo con langosta (chicken and prawns) arròs am conill (rice
with rabbit), mató (Catalonian goats milk curd cheese), Crema catalane
(catalan